Teacher’s Pet

Tell us about a teacher who had a real impact on your life, either for the better or the worse. How is your life different today because of him or her?

College, sophomore year. My percussion instructor, Allen Kelly. He made me detest practice. He was such an awful person. Every Thursday was a trip into hell. He was just cruel. I was first chair in every group I was in, but he made me feel like I wasn’t even capable of playing a jack in the box correctly. Everything I did was wrong. I started to ABHOR the drums. Especially that fucking marimba. I had blisters from 4 mallet practice and he would whack my hand with a mallet every time I hit wrong notes. He made me terrified of that thing. Every time I saw it I wanted to throw up.
Whenever I saw him outside of my lessons, I would either run, or hide. Anything to get away from him.

But, even worse. His brother Stuart was my music theory teacher. And he was tons worse than Allen. He made Hitler look like Mother Teresa. He was just a HORRID person. One time he picked up a desk and threw it at the wall. All because somebody laughed. I eventually dropped out of his class. I even changed my major the next semester. He made me fucking hate music.
The next year, they both left the university. Probably to go back to hell. I changed my major back to music. It was so much better without them. I still have some scars, though.